Fake Facebook Friends and the CIA
Last night I received a Facebook friend request from an old friend and accepted it. Within a minute or two, a FB Messenger chat started up about the UN and the Sustainable Development Goals. So, I of course kept the conversation going. Until it quickly became a classic advance fee scam conversation (originally made famous by folks in Nigeria with faxes). I quickly checked, and found that (of course) I already was Facebook friends with my old friend. Someone had borrowed her picture and name and was starting to ply the scam trade. Facebook has a handy way of reporting this exact problem and the fake account was suspended within minutes. But, it was a reminder of how somebody who has been working with people at the forefront of the security field can be taken in, if only for five minutes. So, my advice: if an old friend reaches out to you on Facebook, someone who really should already be a Facebook friend, it's probably not your friend....